Open Sources Show Notes for Thursday November 30, 2017

It’s a local affair on this week’s Open Sources Guelph. We will shirk the circus and the clown car south of the border, and the sadder and scarier events worldwide to deal with the process and politics here in Guelph, the province of Ontario, and in the country of Canada. Nation-wide, the Liberal government want us to help them help us get into more housing. Provincially, the official opposition announced it’s plan to charm your vote next year, and it may not be completely terrible. Meanwhile, there are big decisions coming up locally, and a member of city council will join us to talk about his thoughts.

This Thursday, November 30, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:

1) Paint it Brown! About six months in advanced of the provincial election, Progressive Conservative leader Patrick Brown unveiled the platform for his party, which promised $5 billion for transit, nearly $2 billion for mental health, a 75 per cent rebate for child care, a big tax cut for the middle class, and something called the Trust, Accountability and Integrity Act. Not bad for a PC leader in Ontario as there’s no foot in mouth on religious schools or cutting 100,000 government jobs. So where does it all go wrong? How about a new logo that’s an unfortunate reminder of a baseball team that no longer exists? Or the promised money for a Scarborough subway that looks less and less likely to come about? We’ll look at the details.

2) House Sitters. Meanwhile in Ottawa, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the federal government announced a new national housing strategy designed to help the homeless, create new affordable and community housing opportunities, and assist people with getting into an increasing inaccessible housing market. On top of that, the legislation will make housing a fundamental right, create new benefits for low-income households, and make funding more easily available for vulnerable people like women fleeing domestic violence. Just a few problems though. The great swell of this funding won’t come through until 2021, and it will also depend on the provinces to come through with matching funds. So what are we to make of this strategy when reading the fine print?

3) Karl’s Remarks. We’re getting close to crunch time for the end of the year, and all those last minute decisions that City Hall has to button up before we say goodbye to 2017, and that includes the 2018 budget, of course. The big vote is on Tuesday, so before any final decisions are made, we thought it might be interesting to hear from one of the decision makers. This week, we welcome back to the show Karl Wettstein, a city councillor for Ward 6, to tell us his thoughts going into the final round of voting, what might make of break his yes vote on the tax-supported operating budget, and his great expectations for the new infrastructure development in his own backyard, the South End Recreation Centre. We’ll also look at the past year at council, and the (election) year in Guelph to come.